The 25 BTC CASASCIUS PHYSICAL BITCOIN is here!

[casascius]

Weight: About 34 grams, or 1.2 ounces.
Size: About 45 mm, or 1.75 inches.
Thickness: About 3mm
Plated with real gold.  Text on front is painted black.
Each coin comes individually wrapped in a clear plastic pouch.

Cost: 28 BTC if you order 1-4.
27.50 BTC if you order 5+.
Percentage wise, this is a more favorable premium than the 1 BTC coin.

These are not on my website yet, but USA customers, you can still order if you calculate send the correct amount, and mention in the notes field.  (I do all these manually anyway, so it won't be missed).  The flat rate shipping is the same.

International customers, please wait until I have the site updated.  (Or, at your own risk, I am willing to send ONE coin in a DVD mailer sent via regular letter mail for 1 BTC). Due to the value, I am looking into other shipping methods that provide better tracking and delivery.  It'll probably be DHL, UPS, or USPS Express, and in some cases registered mail.  Also, I plan to provide a lower-cost lettermail international shipping option for very small orders (up to 5 BTC worth of coins).  Stay tuned.

https://www.casascius.com

EDIT: P.S. For the 25 BTC coin, I am offering an "unspoil" service, so you never need to choose between destroying your physical coin and gaining electronic access to your funds.  If at any time you need to tear open your 25BTC physical bitcoin to get your funds, you can send it back at a later date and have it cleaned and restickered with a new 25 BTC private key for only 25.5 BTC plus return shipping.

[Yankee (BitInstant)]

Awesome, definitely ordering one of these!!

Look into shipping via UPS Mail Innovations. http://www.upsmailinnovations.com/
It's basically a cooperation btwn UPS and USPS. You get a USPS tracking number, but everything is picked up by UPS. UPS delivers it to the customers post office and the USPS delivers it locally.

They ship anything under 1 lb. We use UPS MI for small packages, perfect for these.
Just an example of some of my rates

3oz = $1.49
60z = $1.93
10 oz = $2.58
13 oz = $2.99
15.99 oz = $4.41

if you have any questions, or want my reps #, send me a PM

Charlie

[naypalm]

Very cool! 

[JohnnyCashout]

pretty cool. Any possibility of minting one in .999 Fine Silver?  Of course it would cost the value of the silver plus the embedded bitcoins, but I'd buy one in pure silver for sure

[Stephen Gornick]

When you say gold plated alloy, are you referring to gold as in the color, or gold as in metallic content?

[casascius]

When you say gold plated alloy, are you referring to gold as in the color, or gold as in metallic content?

Both.  The surface is gold metal.

[bronan]

So in short gold colored paint, but it looks nice though
Silver or Gold coins would trigger attention from governements and can not be freely traded, especially gold is not allowed these days
Some people was thinking of walking over our border with 200 krugerrands mounted in their jackets and belts....
And guess who has the gold now .... indeed the governement, so i do not expect such coins have an actual gold plating and to be honest you do not want that either.

[casascius]

So in short gold colored paint,... i do not expect such coins have an actual gold plating and to be honest you do not want that either.

No, not paint.  They are really gold plated.  (edited my prior posts to make this more clear)

[kjj]

So in short gold colored paint, but it looks nice though
Silver or Gold coins would trigger attention from governements and can not be freely traded, especially gold is not allowed these days
Some people was thinking of walking over our border with 200 krugerrands mounted in their jackets and belts....
And guess who has the gold now .... indeed the governement, so i do not expect such coins have an actual gold plating and to be honest you do not want that either.

[Cryptoman]

Beautiful!  Is there any significance to the pattern of 1's and 0's on the back?

[casascius]

Beautiful!  Is there any significance to the pattern of 1's and 0's on the back?

Yes, they are binary-coded ASCII for: "YOU ASKED FOR CHANGE" "WE GAVE YOU COINS".  Four little dots on the bottom tell you where to start reading.

I really need to post another picture of how it looks under can lights.  Not only does that bring the hologram to life, those 0's and 1's sparkle in a way that make the back coin look encrusted with diamonds.

[mpfrank]

Very nice!  BTW, I just received my order of 11 one-BTC coins from you today - I would like to compliment you on your fast delivery.  

What is the process for importing the private key on the back of the hologram into a wallet?
[EDIT: Never mind, I found StrongCoin.]

[Yankee (BitInstant)]

Very nice!  BTW, I just received my order of 11 one-BTC coins from you today - I would like to compliment you on your fast delivery. 

What is the process for importing the private key on the back of the hologram into a wallet?

Simple with MtGox. Login to your MtGox account and Add Funds using a private key
More info- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=46908.0;topicseen

[mpfrank]

Very nice!  BTW, I just received my order of 11 one-BTC coins from you today - I would like to compliment you on your fast delivery. 

What is the process for importing the private key on the back of the hologram into a wallet?

Simple with MtGox. Login to your MtGox account and Add Funds using a private key
More info- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=46908.0;topicseen

Good to know, thanks!

[Stephen Gornick]

Casascius,

May I request 10 blanks of both the 25BTC and 1 BTC coins be shipped to Korea? We haven't eliminated your coins nor Bitbills from being implemented widespread in Korea and we need some samples to get a better idea if you don't mind.

Blanks, as in the peeled-open shells?  Or blanks as in ... intact, just with no value?  Even though I wouldn't accept one of these as payment without first verifying the code I wouldn't want the potential for there to be "blanks" floating around.

[Steve]

Love the new coin!

pretty cool. Any possibility of minting one in .999 Fine Silver?  Of course it would cost the value of the silver plus the embedded bitcoins, but I'd buy one in pure silver for sure

Nice idea!  Diversification in a single coin...make it 1oz and 10 BTC and you have close to an equivalent value in silver and BTC.

[Steve]

Silver or Gold coins would trigger attention from governements and can not be freely traded, especially gold is not allowed these days

Really?  What country has banned gold?

[JohnnyCashout]

Silver or Gold coins would trigger attention from governements and can not be freely traded, especially gold is not allowed these days

Really?  What country has banned gold?

well the US made private ownership of gold illegal for many years, however now it is perfectly legal.  You are only allowed to carry $10,000 worth of precious metals across the border without declaring it though.

[casascius]

Casascius,

May I request 10 blanks of both the 25BTC and 1 BTC coins be shipped to Korea? We haven't eliminated your coins nor Bitbills from being implemented widespread in Korea and we need some samples to get a better idea if you don't mind.

Matthew

I am willing to sell the blanks at the same price as the coin minus the face value.  They will arrive with no hologram, the same as if you ordered them with the full value, peeled the hologram, redeemed the BTC, and then cleaned off the residue with a solvent (it comes completely off with Goof-off etc.).

For the 1 BTC coins, I am willing to sell torn open ones for 0.15 BTC on an as-available basis.  These have a real private key and bitcoin address, but nothing has been loaded on them, the sticker has been peeled and restuck (so it shows tamper marks), and the private key has been lightly crossed out.  At the moment I probably have 50 such coins available.

(The offer for 0.15 BTC generally are "mistake" coins, since a percentage always get messed up for one reason or another, such as if I accidentally smudge the label and make the tamper dots appear.  On the other hand, there are no 25 BTC mistake coins, because the coins are worth enough that it's worthwhile to clean them off and redo them in the event of a mistake.)

[casascius]

Sounds reasonable to me. Bill me in PM with an address please.

If you don't mind, go to https://casascius.com and fill out your order, but just put in the notes that you want blanks, and subtract the face value off the total, then you'll get an address and all your info will be in my shipping system.  So I can print the customs form and shipping label straight from the database all in one step.